Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/176

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ANTHROPOLOGY

yield correct anatomical details (C.A.P., 1867, p. 347). At the entrance to the cave, and inside it, were found some twenty

Figure(s): 27

FIG. 27.— Reconstructed Vase of fragments of pottery found in Trou du Frontal about 12 inches in diameter. (After Dupont.)

worked flints, perforated pendants of fluorine, many shells from Eocene formations (perforated), two plaques of sandstone with incised ornamentations, and a globular vessel or urn restored from fragments of coarse pottery (Fig. 27). Dupont, probably influenced by Lartet's opinion of the analogous sepulchral cavern of Aurignac, regarded the Trou du Frontal as a cemetery of the Palæolithic hunters of the reindeer period. But, judging from the brachycephalism of the skulls, the pottery, and the associated relics, it is now generally

believed to have belonged to the early Neolithic age. (L'Homme pendant les Ages de la Pierre, p. 195 et seq.)

Caverns of Goyet, Trou Magrite, etc.

The station of Goyet (Namur) was one of a series of caverns connected by passages in which a number of objects of the Magdalénien epoch were disinterred, including a bâton de commandement, a barbed harpoon, and needles made of reindeer horn, together with flint implements mostly of Moustérien types. These objects were interspersed in débris of human habitation, intercalated with five fluviatile strata caused by river flooding, thus representing different chronological levels ranging from Moustérien to Neolithic times. Fragments of human bones were scattered throughout the débris in such a manner as to suggest that the carnivorous animals which frequented the cavern had here feasted on human flesh. Among the predominant fauna were the following :— Cave-bear (26 individuals), hyæna (12), mammoth (7), horse (18), reindeer (20), rhinoceros (4), stag (2), etc.

The Trou Magrite (Pont-à-Lesse) presented very favourable conditions for human habitation, being dry, spacious, and